Presenting at the conference
Code of conduct
By participating in the Annual Conference, delegates (including presenters) agree to abide by the code of conduct.
Presenting in an in-person session (or hybrid session in-person)
If you are presenting in-person at the conference, we recommend arriving at your allocated room 20 minutes in advance of the session to get set up. Room details are listed on your session details in the online programme.
Guide on finding session rooms
Please bring with you a copy of your presentation on a USB stick to upload to the session room computer. We encourage you to send a back-up copy of your presentation files to your session Chair ahead of the event, to minimise the risk of technical problems on the day. AV support will be on hand; there will be information in your session room about how to contact them.
During the session, please keep an eye on your session Chair who will be sitting at the front, and who will indicate to you how long you have left to present. It is really, really important that you stick to time, to be respectful of your colleagues, and allow everyone time to present. If you have any questions about timings, please ask the session Chair before the session begins. Please note that the session Chair will stop your presentation if it overruns.
The session Chair will keep track of time and will let you know how they plan to run the Q&A, and whether the session is being recorded.
Additional guidance for those presenting in hybrid sessions
You will be presenting through Zoom so that those online can hear your presentation.
You must not disconnect the session room laptop from the room AV at any point, as this will disconnect the Zoom meeting.
Presenters must bring their presentations in a format that can be played on a PC. If you are using a Mac, contact us before the event.
Each hybrid room is equipped with a good camera and microphone, separate to the session room laptop. You may need to stand in a particular location to be visible on the camera for those watching/participating online.
While presenting, you will use the ‘Share my screen’ feature. You may need to double-check that the slides are set to ‘Duplicate screen’ mode, so that they advance for both those in the room and those watching online.
If you would like to play a video as part of your presentation, please bring this as a separate file on your USB stick. To play the video during your presentation, please stop sharing your slides, and follow these instructions to share and play your video as part of the Zoom meeting:
Presenting in an online session (or hybrid session remotely)
If you are presenting online, you will be able to access your session through our virtual platform, Ex Ordo. On the page for your session, under 'ways to watch' on the right hand side, click 'view stage'.
From here you can click to join the Zoom meeting. If you would like to familiarise yourself with Zoom ahead of the event, we recommend attending one of our drop-in sessions in August. Dates and times will be confirmed shortly.
Please join the session at least 10 minutes before the scheduled start-time to get set up. Each session will have a virtual stage-manager, who will be on-hand to help and answer any queries you might have. We strongly advise you to send a back-up copy of your presentation files to your session Chair and stage manager a day ahead of the event, to minimise the risk of technical problems on the day.
Please bear in mind that everything on the screen you share is visible to those watching. This includes but is not limited to bookmark bars, open tabs, and notifications that pop up/slide in. These notifications could include social media, WhatsApp, personal email and other DMs like Slack. Consider turning off notifications and removing any personal or private information ahead of the start of your live session.
We strongly recommend that you keep the chat box on display during your presentation. The Chair will post messages to you in this box to let you know how long you have left to present, and this will not be visible to others in the session. Please note, if you run over time your session Chair will stop your presentation. This is because it is really important to stick to time out of respect to colleagues, to allow everyone their chance to present.
New to presenting?
If you are participating in the conference for the first time, it can be a little daunting. This section offers some of our top tips to help you get ready and feel confident delivering your presentation.
Preparing your presentation
- Don’t try to cram your whole project into a 15-minute presentation or paper. Better presentations have a clear focus, whether that’s your key findings, a particular case study which illuminates the project, or a methodological problem you’d like some input on. Less really is more!
- Don’t be afraid to keep the focus on what is new and exciting about your work. While a bit of context is important to set the scene, don’t spend your whole presentation rehashing others’ work – unless your paper is deliberately a literature review.
- Decide at the outset whether you want to write a paper that you will read aloud (which you can then repurpose or extend for submission to a journal, or a thesis chapter), or deliver a presentation. Both approaches can work well but will require you to prepare differently.
- If you are writing a paper, we recommend writing your structure first, and then filling it in. What key point do you want the audience to take away with them?
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- It’s important to fit the amount of content to the time you will have. For 15 minutes, this will be about 1,200 words.
- If you are reading from a script, make sure you are still engaging with the audience. Remember it’s a performance, and a conversation.
- If reading aloud, avoid also using lots of visual aids e.g. slides, other than perhaps one very striking image or graphic. It’s likely distracting for you (having to juggle two things at once) and for the audience.
- If you are delivering a presentation from notes, with slides, you’ll similarly want to be clear on the story you want to tell, and the key points you want to land with the audience.
- For a 12-15 minute presentation, you probably want about 10 slides.
- Slides are visual – make the most of this! Use striking images, key graphics and even short video clips – though test these out in advance where you can, have a back up ready, and make sure to factor it into your timings.
- DON’T have lots of text on the slides that you just read out. If you want the audience to read a quotation from a slide, for example, make sure to pause for them to do this, and build this into your timings.
- Use the slides as prompts for the key beats of your presentation.
- Practice, practice, practice. Make sure you’ve read/said your paper/presentation aloud at least once, and more if possible, ideally using a timer or stopwatch to see how long this actually takes you to do. This will help build your confidence and remind you of how well you know your material!
- Think about potential questions that might come up. If you practice your presentation with colleagues or friends, see what questions they have for you.
- If you’re attending in person, bring your presentation slides in two formats in case a computer can’t read your file – PowerPoint and a PDF is a good backup option in most cases. Bring a printout of your notes you can read from too if you find that helpful (and just in case of serious technical difficulties!).
- You may also find these resources on storytelling in science and how to present your research helpful.
At the conference
- A good conference is 1) giving a good paper and 2) asking a good question. If you come back having done both of those things, then you've done well.
- Try to attend sessions before your presentation (online or in person) and, if you can, ask questions. Get used to hearing your voice in the room, in front of colleagues, collaborators, and potential future friends.
- If you're presenting in person, check out the room ahead of time, if you can, so you know where you’re going and are confident you can find it again. At the RGS-IBG Conference, rooms are open from 8.00am-7.00pm on each conference day. You can go in during coffee breaks and at the start and end of lunch too.
- Consider taking a break immediately before your session to read over your notes one last time and to steady your nerves. Breathe – you’ve prepared for this.
In the session
- Technical problems happen – if they do, everyone else will be so thoroughly relieved it's not happening to them that they’ll almost certainly be really, really nice to you in the Q&A. The session Chair should be able to help, but if you’re having problems, call the conference helpdesk on +44 (0)20 7591 3027 (details will be in the room on the day) and we’ll send someone to assist.
- Remember to engage with your audience – it’s a conversation, not a broadcast. This is particularly important if you are presenting online, where it can be harder to engage with people. Be more present, have your visuals be really engaging and sharp.
- Stick to the time limits. Your session Chair will contact you in advance of the session to let you know how long to present, and it is a good idea to confirm this with them at the start of the session. Please make sure you stick to time out of respect to other presenters. However, if someone else has seriously overrun their time, do not panic as your session Chair should still give you your full slot to present so that you don’t lose out.
Questions
- Take the time at the end of the sessions to receive questions and speak to other presenters.
- During Q&A, take notes of questions while they’re being asked if that helps, and don’t be afraid to ask for clarification if you’re not sure what the question was. Pause to think for a moment if you need to before launching into an answer. Remember that the question often reflects more on the asker than on you or your research.
Making your presentation more accessible
When you are creating a presentation, it is important to keep accessibility in mind. Here are a few tips and some useful resources that you can use to ensure your presentation is as accessible as possible for all members of your audience.
Delivery
When you are delivering your presentation, it is important that all members of the audience understand the points you are making. Simple steps such as speaking slowly and clearly, describing any content on the slides, and arranging the room to ensure everyone has good access can help accommodate a range of needs. It is useful to consider a range of characteristics ahead of your presentation, and check you have planned a delivery that can accommodate a diverse audience.
Deliver an accessible presentation
Formatting
Whether you are presenting online or in-person, the format of your presentation can make a huge difference to accessibility. Using sans serif fonts (like Calibri, Verdana, Arial) and dark-coloured text on light (not white) single-coloured backgrounds is helpful for any dyslexic viewers you may be speaking to. If you are creating a PowerPoint, you can use Microsoft’s Accessibility Checker feature to ensure your presentation is in a clear format and readable structure for your audience.
Format an accessible presentation
Live captions and transcripts
Enabling captions on your presentation will improve accessibility for audience members who are hard of hearing.
Presenting online
If you are presenting online through Zoom, it is straightforward to set up subtitles following Zoom’s step-by-step guidance. You will have two options: automated captions (live transcription) or manual captions. The automated captions work well but are subject to a few errors, and can get confused when multiple people are speaking. Therefore you may opt for manual captions, in which case you will need to elect somebody to type live notes throughout your presentation.
You might want to save a transcript of the captions, so that audience members can read through later at their own pace. If you choose to do so, you will need to turn on Save Captions in your Zoom settings in advance of the meeting. At the end of your meeting, at the bottom of the transcript window, click Save Transcript and a copy of the transcript will be downloaded as a text file to your device. Please note that any in-person participants (i.e. using the same microphone) will not be named separately in the transcript – they will all appear under the host’s account/username.
Presenting in-person
If you are presenting in-person, you can set up your PowerPoint to create live subtitles during your presentation. Please note that this feature requires Windows 10 or a later version, and a microphone, in order to function.
Read Microsoft’s guidance on using the PowerPoint subtitle feature here.
Translation
Adding translated captions to your presentation will open participation to audience members from around the world. This feature is available on a multitude of platforms, and is simple to set up whether you are presenting in-person or online.
Zoom has a live language interpretationfunction, where you can assign an interpreter (or several) to scribe live translated captions during the presentation.
If you are presenting using PowerPoint you can enable live automatic translations during your presentation. Please note that this feature requires Windows 10 or higher, and a microphone.
Microsoft Teams have a translation function which translates any slides being shared by the presenter. This does not affect the view of the slides seen by any other users, but please note that it can disrupt the formatting so you are advised to leave empty space around text to avoid any words being obscured.
Ask the organisers: drop-in sessions
In the run up to the conference we will host a series of drop-in sessions to give presenters and Chairs the opportunity to ask questions of the organisers, and to familiarise themselves with Zoom's functionalities. This will be particularly helpful to those presenting online via Zoom.
The drop-in sessions will be hosted via Zoom. Delegates are welcome to join any one of these sessions to ask the organisers a question, practice sharing their presentation slides via Zoom, and test their video and sound quality.
You will join a waiting room before being admitted to the drop-in on a one-to-one basis.
Certificates of attendance
Certificates of attendance can be provided by the conference organisers upon request. These will be provided in digital copy after the conference.
Making the most of the online platform
Find out how to navigate the online platform and upload content.
Attending the in-person conference
Find out what you can expect at the in-person conference.
How to find buildings and rooms
Navigate the conference venue with our handy step-by-step guides.
Accessibility at the conference
Find out how we are making the conference accessible for all.
Guide for newcomers
Advice and support for those new to the conference.
Code of conduct
The Society's annual conference code of conduct applies to all delegates and participants.
How we run the conference
Read our information about how we run the conference.